Do The Toronto Raptors Get A Bad Rap?

What do you guys think? Do you think this article is pretty accurate and that any sport that isn't hockey in the city of Toronto gets a bad rap?

It started as an innocent call to the Fan 590. A guy called in complaining about the coverage the Toronto Raptors get on the Fan590. The caller alleged that everything the Toronto Maple Leafs do is over-hyped and nothing the Toronto Raptors do is every hyped. His point was that the Leafs play of late has the media in a buzz, while no one talks about the Raptors except in a negative tone.

Taking the call was Eric Smith and Jack Armstrong. Part of Smithís response was that, on a no name basis, there are those in the Toronto Sports Media who arenít as big of fans of the Toronto teams as others.
Smith, in case you donít know, is an active participant on Twitter (you can follow him at @eric_smith). So I, being the curious type, sent him a tweet asking him to, on a no name basis to expand upon his comment. Now, I have said this before but the one area, in my opinion anyway where Twitter is really useful is making guys like Eric Smith, (you can add in many sports media personalities here, especially on the local beat) accessible to us fans. Now I guess, prior to Twitter, I could have emailed Smith if I had his email address and maybe he would get it, and maybe he would have read it. Personal experience has shown that as long as you arenít a total dink and are the least bit insightful most of the sports personalities in this town will indeed respond to you. In this case, what ensued was pretty cool, all things considering. Smith explained that in his opinion there are members of the local media (not on the Raptors beat) who donít want other sports (hockey being the exception) like basketball and baseball to succeed here. He and I then went back and forth several times to the point where he invited his Raptors broadcast partner Paul Jones (@paul_jones) to the conversation.

The three of us discussed the issues for several tweets and the take away I got was that there is a genuine belief by those in the media, that other non-Raptors media types donít respect basketball or the Raptors the same way that they do the Maple Leafs and hockey. Jones said that things are better today as opposed to the past, but still one gets the sense there is some bad blood in the media towards the dinos and those who cover them.

It got me to thinking, and who am I to suggest that these guys are wrong, they are living it, they know who their breathern are and who may have the hate out for what they do better than I. Are those in the media really anti-bball/Raptor or is there more at play? Are the Raptors getting a bad rap from the local media?

So here is what I think, and I am curious to know if I am on or off base.

Part of a GM's job is to control expectations + external pressures to whatever degree he can.

Bryan Colangelo has done a terrible job of that over the past two seasons. Making fans believe the Raptors had the best team on paper and that they could make a playoff run. Consequently, it's always seemed like the Raptors are under-performing and in essence failing. There's no buzz about failing teams, only negative thoughts and disappointment.

Bryan Colangelo has created the negativity around the team with his reckless statements to the media.

I don't think there should be any doubt about what Eric Smith said. I agree. Expanding the conversation, I think it is clearly evident that most of the American media enjoy seeing the Raptors stumble and just love to sell them short at every turn. To most of them the Raptors have never put together any good clubs and any successful year was just a overachieving effort. By saying they "overachieved" they avoid admitting they were wrong. The sad thing is that many of those who are strongly against the club, both home and abroad, don't even take the time to at least do some research so that they put together well thought out and structured critiques. Instead you'll find inaccuracy in abundance that just makes your head hurt and lead to questions of integrity about the writer. One prime example would be Charlie Rosen.I admit the guy knows a lot about ball but when it comes to the Raptors he is consistently harsh, never admits when he is wrong and typically he is wrong somewhere in every article about the Raptors.